ISLAMABAD, December 24, 2018: The Provincial Assembly of Balochistan passed two government bills amid walkout by the opposition lawmakers on Monday, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN).

Following are key observations of the House proceedings during fourth sitting of the fifth session:

Members’ Participation

• The Assembly met for an hour and 21 minutes.
• The sitting started at 1559 hours against the scheduled time of 1500 hours.
• Thirteen lawmakers (20%) were present at the start and 17 (26%) at the end of the sitting.
• The Deputy Speaker chaired the entire sitting as the Speaker was not present.
• The Leader of the House did not attend the sitting.
• The Leader of the Opposition attended the proceedings.
• The parliamentary leaders of ANP, MMAP, BNP-M and PkMAP attended the sitting.
• Two out of three minority members were present.

Output                                             

• The House passed two government bills, Balochistan Revenue Authority (Amendmet) Bill, 2018 and Balochistan Sales Tax Services (Amendment) Bill 2018. Both the bills were passed in the absence of entire opposition as they staged walkout against the first bill when their demand for sending the bill to relevant committee was not accepted.

Representation and Responsiveness

• The House took up 11 out of 12 Starred Questions while one question was deferred as the answer was not received.
• The House concluded the Adjournment Motion (AM) on drought situation that was moved by a PkMAP lawmaker and had been admitted for discussion during third sitting of the same session. The AM was concluded in the absence of entire opposition as well as the mover.

Order and Institutionalization        

• The entire opposition staged a walkout from the proceedings at 1710 hours till the end of the sitting.
• Sixteen lawmakers spoke on seven Points of Order consuming 34 minutes.

Transparency

• ‘Orders of the Day’ was available to the legislators, observers and others.
• The attendance of lawmakers was not available to the observers and media.

This daily factsheet is based on direct observation of the Balochistan Assembly proceedings conducted by the Center for Peace and Development (CPD) – a member organization of FAFEN. Errors and omissions are excepted.